Top Chef star Tiffany Derry organizes dishes and workers in the Beaumont Club kitchen during her pop-up restaurant Friday night. Derry commented that she hopes to have a restaurant in Beaumont within a year.
Photo taken Friday, November 9, 2012
Guiseppe Barranco/The Enterprise less

Top Chef star Tiffany Derry organizes dishes and workers in the Beaumont Club kitchen during her pop-up restaurant Friday night. Derry commented that she hopes to have a restaurant in Beaumont within a year. ... more

Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Top Chef star Tiffany Derry prepares dishes that were served during her pop-up dinner at the Beaumont Club on Friday.
Photo taken Friday, November 09, 2012
Guiseppe Barranco/The Enterprise

Top Chef star Tiffany Derry prepares dishes that were served during her pop-up dinner at the Beaumont Club on Friday.
Photo taken Friday, November 09, 2012
Guiseppe Barranco/The Enterprise

Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Image 10 of 10

'Top Chef' star brings her culinary prowess back to Beaumont

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BEAUMONT - Four hours before the opening of her much-anticipated pop-up restaurant, "Top Chef" fan favorite Tiffany Derry is determined to be more than a one-night stand in her hometown.

"I've been wanting to do this for three years," she says. "I want a place that involves my mom, my dad and my family."

The dinner at the Beaumont Club was Derry's first date with many local diners, and one of the reasons the executive chef/partner of the much-lauded Dallas restaurant Private/Social was reticent to release the four-course menu before guests arrived.

"I didn't want people to say, 'What? An oyster po' boy? Why did I pay $69 for an oyster po' boy?' " Derry says. "Tonight I want people to say, 'Wow, what is this?' when they see the plate."

Private/Social, located in uptown Dallas, has been open 14 months. It's earned a good reputation for its sleek décor, party atmosphere, red-hot mixologist and Derry's sophisticated soul food.

As for her Beaumont concept, don't expect a second Private/Social.

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"Whatever I open here has to have a Beaumont feel. I can't do Private/Social here. I charge $150 for this menu," she says, motioning to the pop-up menu. "I'm charging $69 tonight."

A warm welcome

More Information

Tiffany Derry

Age: 29

TV reality shows: "Top Chef" and "Top Chef: All Stars"

Early start: started at 15 as server at IHOP and worked her way through kitchen to assistant manager

At 5 o'clock, Derry's army of family and friends are mobilized. Her mother, Louisa Austin, and grandmother, Angela Henry, are at the front of the house, greeting guests. Even strangers get a warm hug. In a nearby corner, Derry's father, Lloyd Austin, plays the sax. He's part of a two-man band that will perform throughout dinner service.

This night, uncles are servers, aunts are food runners, and cousins are handling the bread service and clearing plates.

Derry puts a strip of double-sticky tape across a long prep table that will become the evening's command center as the first ticket comes in. Ditto the first of the frantic questions from the staff: "Where's the special ice tea?"

"Our first table," Derry announces, taking a deep breath.

One of Derry's aunts eagerly awaits the first dish, cryptically on the menu as "fried greens." It's a fat wedge of crispy fried green tomato with a shrimp-dotted remoulade and a smattering of micro greens.

"Do you know all the table numbers?" Derry asks a food runner.

Derry inspects the first plates. "That too much sauce," she tells one of the four line cooks. "Make it taller," she says to another. "Come on, Brandy, where's my salads? I need them. You're already dragging, and we haven't even started yet."

Customers' kudos

Ron Lackey of Beaumont is one of the evening's early guests. He jokes that his wife, away in Temple, is jealous of his last-minute dinner plans. The pair dined at Derry's Dallas restaurant on Valentine's Day.

"It was real good, and then Tiffany came out and made a big deal of us. And that was nice, because she's a big deal, a celebrity," Lackey says, adding that the evening concluded with a photo with Derry in her kitchen. "She a helluva chef."

His favorite Friday night? A second course of Crispy Striped Bass, a shiny slab of pan-fried fish perched atop a snappy pepperoni stew studded with crispy rounds of salami. Shaved fennel and flecks of coriander made the plate a rustic party.

Jowanna Cheatham, another of the early diners, learned about the dinner through Facebook. The 33-year-old is hanging just outside the kitchen, clutching a glass of ice tea and hoping to get a word with the chef. Overwhelmed by the chaos of the scene, she retreats.

Other diners aren't quite as meek.

Minutes later, a plate headed for the dining room crashes to the floor just as five well-dressed diners storm the kitchen. One woman, teetering on tall heels, squeals when she spies the "Top Chef" contestant. Poring over a line of tickets, Derry straightens and turns to greet the women with a big smile. "How many photos do you need," she teases one of the camera phone-toting diners. The kitchen was at capacity: star-struck diners, harried food runners, a dishwasher juggling a rack of wine glasses.

Delayed appearance

Two hours into dinner service and Derry hasn't left the kitchen - much to the consternation of the staff and, in particular, her husband, Mark Mitchell. The diners are paying top dollar to see a "Top Chef."

Derry's uncle and server Denny Johnson asks his niece to step outside the kitchen to speak to one of his tables - eight members of the pastor's Antioch Baptist Church in nearby Call. It takes nudging from Derry's mother to finally get the chef into the dining room. Thanks to the fireworks of camera flashes, it's not hard to track Derry's whereabouts in the dimly lit dining room.

She returns to a slammed kitchen.

"Y'all need to refocus. And get these tables right," she scolds.

The orders seem to never stop. Derry doesn't lose her composure, but she never stops giving instruction either.

"Can you not slam my plates down."

"If they're having wine, give 'em some extra."

"We gotta stay calm till the end. Freaking out does nothing."

"You can't cook fish in a burnt pan."

Outside the Beaumont Club, Bruce and Katherine Walker are recounting their dining experience. She gives good marks to the oyster po' boy salad with its super-crispy oyster and salad of pickled cauliflower and butter lettuce. He wasn't a fan of the Swiss chard served with the pork and beans third course. Black beans cooked with sausage, bacon and vegetables formed the earthy base of this tribute to the farm. A chunky column of pork belly, standing at attention, got a cap of citrus-spiked apple chutney. Little logs of Swiss chard and tomato confit - cherry tomatoes roasted slowly in fat - added a punch of color and acidic sweetness.By 10 p.m., the third course is going out to the last seating of the evening's 250 diners, and the desserts are plated and ready to go. On the menu, the dessert is S'mores. On the plate, it's a generous square of a dense, rich chocolate cake floating on a scorched meringue island, accompanied by caramelized banana and topped with pecans.